Building a Safer Online Business Environment
Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in the Asia-Pacific region can now feel more confident about expanding their businesses online through the release of APEC's Safety Net Online tutorial. A free resource, the tutorial aims to show SMEs how to protect themselves on the Internet using a self-paced interactive tool, which provides practical case studies, simulations and recommended policy guidelines to enable businesses to secure their information networks and computers in the online environment.
Launching Safety Net Online, Australian Minister for Communications, Information Technology and the Arts, Senator Helen Coonan observed, "Small and medium size businesses say that the security issue of most concern to them is the potential for people to hack into their business systems. Unlike larger businesses, small business doesn't necessarily have the specialist staff or resources to deal with Internet security issues. The Safety Net interactive online e-security tutorial can be used by busy business people to develop realistic and effective responses to Internet security threats at their own pace and in their own time."
The Safety Net Online tutorial has been developed using APEC's highly successful Safety Net Information Booklet as a guide and provides practical advice to businesses and Internet users on their security needs, including enabling them to -
- Test their current Internet security safety measures by taking a two-minute quiz.
- Read case studies to learn more about some of the common mistakes made by other businesses.
- Explore useful answers to frequently asked questions about online security.
- Play a simulation game that teaches users about cyber security.
- Download and adopt policy guidelines covering the five main Internet security issues such as online purchasing and emailing.
The online tutorial was developed by the Asia Oceania Electronic Marketplace Association (AOEMA) and InfoCommunications International as part of an APEC sponsored project and is available for free on three websites - the AOEMA site (http://www.aoema.org/), the Digital Filipino E-Commerce Workshop Book site (http://www.digitalfilipino.com) and the E-Commerce Philippines Club site (http://www.e-commercephilippines.com).
One of the chief architects of the Safety Net Online tutorial, Mr. Michael Baker of AOEMA sees a bright future for the product throughout the region, "We see great potential for this product to help SMEs in the region feel more confident to interact and trade online. In the near future we hope to translate the product into other languages and hope to have a contract signed soon to translate Safety Net into Chinese"
The Safety Net Online tutorial is just one of a number of APEC projects which aim to develop a "Culture of Security" in the region to enable safer and more effective use of e-commerce by Asia-Pacific businesses.